Being a sales manager is no easy job. It’s got a ton of stress, and it’s going to require every ounce of managerial decision-making skills to be great at it – especially in this time of global recession.

But do you know what’s worse than having to make a sale when everyone else is cutting back? Managing a team of sales underperformers.

The biggest stress of all comes when a sales managers sales team can’t even make quota. What could be more awkward than that? (more…)

There are two kinds of sales managers. The first one, a more focused type, concentrates on improving his sales reps’ strengths while downplaying their weaknesses. The second type of sales manager is one who shapes his sales reps to become all around regular jack-of-all-trades.

Which sales manager is more effective?

Imagine a clear glass ceiling over the heads of your salespeople. The height of the ceiling represents the amount of talent each salesperson possesses—some high, some low. The question is: can a person who lacks certain core talents for the job ever be successful in his or her line of work? The answer is NO.

Every person is unique, and therefore every salesperson is unique as well. And all this uniqueness add up to vastly different potentials. If you try to make them something they are not…its one of the worst things you could do as a sales manager. (more…)

For our purposes, the Law of Reciprocity states: If you do something nice for someone, human nature dictates that the recipient will feel compelled to do something nice for you in return.

It is in essence: “you reap what you sow”. This is an irrefutable law and one that you should teach your salespeople. The question of will someone actually act upon it at a given time depends on who asks.

At the precise moment that you do something nice for someone, the other person feels compelled to return the favor. Be careful however not to call it out as in “now that I did that for you, now you need to do this for me”. This thinking destroys the whole concept. The idea is to do something and allow them to feel that they must do something for you in return. Be subtle. Don’t dictate.

The most important part of this law to remember is that reciprocity is IMPLICIT. This just means that you should never mention that you need something in return.  When someone does something nice for you, they IMPICITLY expect that when the circumstances are right, you will do something of approximately equal value for them. (more…)

I’m not sure if George Washington had to screen an avalanche of resumes first in order to hire his first cabinet back in 1789…but I do know that you have to.

Just in case you missed that  post on GW, click here

Enclosed are five proven methods to help you to screen out resumes for your open sales positions, so that you can first interview (or phone screen) the best people, then eventually hire the best people…just like George did.

1. How’s the layout?

The first and most important part of the resume is the layout.

This can give you good insights into broad characteristics of the candidate.

Every resume is a reflection of the candidate, so scrutinize the layout for how the descriptions, achievements, dates, descriptions and accolades flow together.

2. Accolades?

The presence of specific accolades in a candidate are about the closest thing you can get to guaranteeing they will succeed at a high level. Unike the mutual fund industry, when it comes to sales reps “past performance is indicative of future performance”.

3. Where are the accolades?

When screening a resume the big thing to look for is not only do they have accolades, but almost as importantly, where are they placed in the resume?

Are they at the bottom of each paragraph? Are they at the top?

The closer to the top usually means the more important they are to the candidate…you want that candidate.

4. Are the accolades consistent in each job they have had?

You need someone to produce consistent results.

Anyone can catch “lightning in a bottle” once and have one really good year…but can they perform at a consistently high level for you year in and year out?

As the saying goes; “One warm day in April does not make a summer”…and one lone Pinnacle Award from 1998 does not make a great salesperson.

5. Typographical Errors

Any typos really means the person does not have the attention to detail that you absolutely require as a top-performing sales manager.

It also means they can’t write!

How can the candidate close sales, write up sales proposals and complete the necessary customer follow up when they cant even hit the “spellcheck” button prior to sending their resume to you?

Needless to say, typos are a big no no.

Post a comment to this post and tell me what methods work best for you in screening top sales candidates?

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.

George Washington had a real knack for hiring top talent.

Lets look at the lineup of his very first cabinet…it included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.

A pretty impressive lineup of direct reports wouldn’t you say?

Certainly, not a stiff in the bunch.

At Sales Management Mastery, one of the major teachings of our program is to hire, then retain top sales talent. Without superior sales consultants, it will be a constant uphill battle for you to achieve the success you truly desire.

But before we can even start discussing that systematic process, we need to talk about you and your “hiring mindset”.

First, when it comes to hiring, it’s essential for you to adopt a  ”Washingtonian” thought process.

He hired not just top talent, but instead hired insanely top talent for his subordinate positions.

So as a sales manager who craves top performance, are your hiring Washington-esque sales talent or are you settling for “someone to just fill the position”?

If so, you need to set the bar higher.

I’m not talking about hiring the kind of sales consultant that merely gets by, I’m talking about recruiting and hiring real talent…historic kind of talent. The kind of talent that will propel your sales to unheard of levels.

Hiring this level of talent takes time, but this is the kind of hiring and screening that we advocate at Sales Management Mastery…and I’ll teach you how to do it in Course 3 (coming soon).

(In the meantime, you can order free Course 1 – “The Trust Account” through the signup on the right side of this blog post).

If you truly want to work less hours, make more money and get promoted or if you simply desire to feel the sheer satisfaction of unleashing the best from your salespeople, then hiring sales people like ol’ G.W. hired his cabinet is a crucial first step.

If that’s the case, then you’ll need to be like George and multiply your talent by hiring people who are better than you…and we’ll discuss that a whole lot more in the next blog post.

Tell what you think and post a comment as to how you hire top talent when recruiting.

To learn even more about sales manager training, get our free ebook.